The Boston Celtics will open up the 2026-27 season on Tuesday afternoon (3 p.m. ET) against the Detroit Pistons in Detroit.

While the 3 p.m. start time is odd, it's designed to have Opening Day have more of an "all-day" feel for fans.

The Celtics are coming off a season in which they went 56-26 and earned the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Detroit was the No. 1. Boston was upset in the first round of the playoffs by the No. 2 seed Philadelphia 76ers.

While none of these are rocket science, there's three major questions for the C's heading into the new year.

This is the obvious elephant in the room that everyone will be talking about all year. Brown spent 10 years in Boston, winning NBA Finals MVP in 2023-24 and finishing sixth in MVP voting last season.

The Celtics will obviously look different without him, but can different be better? We're going to find out. The Celtics will count on Jayson Tatum to be the best version of himself, and they'll count on a strong cast of surrounding characters around him to help pick up the slack.

If you feel really good about the Celtics heading into the year, you likely are intrigued by the idea of George playing a true "Robin" to Tatum's "Batman."

The worry for years was that Tatum and Brown were secretly competing with each other, but George has no such issue taking a secondary role. George is a very good player who can really help this team, but that's only if he stays healthy.

He's played 60 games or less in six of the last seven seasons. If he's playing 65 games, the ceiling for this team is one thing. If he's playing 35, it's another.

The Celtics went out and signed Mitchell Robinson to a three-year deal worth nearly $50 million this offseason, and they also gave Neemias Queta a contract extension. Which one will start? Will the starter also be the finisher at the end of games?

Will we get any double-big lineups? Is Robinson going to play exclusively near the hoop or will he expand outside a bit? Neither one of the them is a "pick-and-pop" player, so can the Celtics play the same style they always have without that element? And how does Luka Garza, who does shoot the 3, fit into things?